What is your most important advice for a beginner in photography (portrait, illustration, wedding, food, advertising) or creative retouching of photographs, and how to start?
To everyone who are starting, I think the education is needed. It's the fastest way to improve. It's really important to have a portfolio with a great selection of images, just the best images and not too much images.
After that it's important to believe in our work. If we don't believe we can't make someone believe in us.
Who are your favorite photographers, and more importantly, how your appreciation of their work has affected how you approach your own photography?
In my case, more important than the references in photography, my main references come from the arts world. So my references are artists like Salvador Dali, Rene Magrite and mainly M.C.Escher.
In this moment I'm delighted with the work of Vladimir Kuch (painting).
For me, this artist has a huge relation between them. Every them created their own realities and worlds, normally surreal/fantasy worlds and I really like that style.
That's why this author influenced me a lot.